The present invention relates generally to washing machine apparatus, and more particularly provides a washing machine having integrally incorporated therein a unique water and heat reclaim system.
Commercial and industrial laundry facilities in, for example, hotels, industrial laundries and large hospitals, typically utilize one or more very large laundry washer/extractor units to wash soiled linen. "Linen" is a generic laundry industry term encompassing a wide variety of launderable items such as sheets, pillow cases, table cloths, towels, uniforms and the like, whether such items are of an actual linen material or of another material such as cotton or polyester. Commercial/industrial washing machines of this general type occupy a considerable amount of floor space and use very large quantities of wash and rinse water, and concomitantly large amounts of energy to heat such water. A typical wash cycle comprises, in sequence, a pre-wash portion, a main wash portion, a first rinse portion, one or more subsequent rinse portions, and a final extraction portion, each of these cycle portions requires that heated water be supplied to, and then drained from, the washing machine drum or cylinder in which the linen disposed.
For many years it was conventional practice to supply fresh, heated water to the washing machine drum for each of the wash and rinse cycle portions, and then drain to waste the used, heated water from one wash or rinse cycle portion before initiating the next wash or rinse cycle portion. In this manner, each incoming quantity of fresh heated water was used only once in this "total water dump" operating format. And, of course, in each subsequent laundry cycle, the fresh heated water was again used only once before being drained to waste. This long-used process, in addition to under-utilizing vast quantities of water, also failed to utilize large amounts of residual heat carried away with the duct water flow.
With the escalation of both water and heating energy costs, it became quite desirable to at least to some extent reclaim water and/or heat therein from each wash cycle for use in subsequent cycles. One manner of at least partially achieving this goal has been to utilize a large, floor-mounted central water reclaim tank in conjunction with the washing machines located in the particular laundry facility. This large common tank is typically used to receive the final rinse cycle water from the individual washing machines and then to re-use the collected rinse water to fill the washing machine drums during their subsequent main or pre-wash cycle portions. In this manner, a considerable amount of water, and a portion of the residual heat therein, may be re-used to reduce both the water and energy costs of the commercial or industrial laundry operation.
This conventional scheme of recycling both water and heat, however, is subject to a variety of well known limitations and disadvantages. For example, as is well known, in most if not all commercial and industrial operations of any sort, floor space is at a premium. The large, floor-mounted common reclaim tank typically requires a considerable amount of such valuable floor space. Additionally, it is not always convenient to locate the large single reclaim tank closely adjacent the various washing machines in the laundry facility. Accordingly, it is often necessary to use a somewhat complex, and often lengthy, piping, valving and pumping system to operatively interconnect the various washing machines with the remote common reclain tank. This, of course, adds to the overall installation cost of the laundry facility and can further result in the loss of considerable water heat as it traverses the lengthy piping system. Additionally, the use of a remote common reclaim tank also often requires that a separate drain system be built.
Another approach to the reclaim problem, which to some extent alleviates the space requirements of the central reclaim tank, is to flow the heated water being discharged from the washing machine drum through a heat exchanger which also has flowed therethrough incoming, fresh water being supplied to one or more of the washing machines. The water being drained from the washing machines is dumped to waste upon discharge thereof from the heat exchanger. It can be seen that this approach, while potentially alleviating the floor space problems associated with the central reclaim tank, addresses only the heat reclaim problem--it does not provide in any manner for the re-use of water. Additionally, it can readily be seen that an auxiliary control system is required to properly sequence the outflow of used water with the inflow of fresh supply water.
From the foregoing it can be seen that a definite need exists for various improvements in water and heat reclaim systems used in commercial an/or industrial laundry applications. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide such improvements.